Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Moscow Can’t Close Ukrainian Language Schools in Russia Because There aren’t Any

Paul
Goble

Staunton, November 15 – A major
reason that Moscow has to struggle to find symmetrical responses to anything other
countries do is because it lacks many of the institutions that they have but
that Russia does not, ranging from media environments open to almost anyone to
schools in the languages of many minorities.

Consequently, the Kremlin is forced to
identify “asymmetrical” replies that often put it even more at odds with others
and that at the very least call attention to the lack of institutions on its
own territory equivalent to those its government-controlled media complain
about when other governments restrict them in any way.

A classical example of this involves
schools in the languages of minority nationalities in other countries and in
Russia.As Radio Liberty’s Pavel Kazarin
says, Moscow isn’t in a position to close Ukrainian language schools in
response to Kyiv’s promotion of Ukrainian because there aren’t any Ukrainian-language
schools in Russia (ru.krymr.com/a/28852778.html).

Russia is currently threatening to “limit
the activities of Ukrainian media on its territory,” the commentator says; but
one is compelled to ask, Kazarin continues, “just what responsive actions is
Moscow talking about?” Almost all Ukrainian media already have closed their bureaus
and activities in Russia.

Russia with remarkable success in
many quarters “is conducting itself as if it were the victim of Ukrainian
aggression,” when in fact the situation is just the reverse. And it can
complain as much as it wants to about Ukraine’s language law, but it can’t symmetrically
response because “Ukrainian schools in Russia don’t exist” for the millions of
Ukrainians there.

Moscow can also complain about the
ban on Russian TV channels in Ukraine, but it can’t respond by shuttering
Ukrainian broadcasts to Russia because they were long ago shut out of Russian
cable networks, except of course for pro-Moscow channels like Intera which by
itself is “indicative.”

This list of places where Russia has
no possible symmetric response because it has already closed out Ukrainian
language, information and goods could be extended almost infinitely, Kazarin
says.But everyone needs to remember
that “the initiator of the divorce of the two countries from the very beginning
was Moscow,” not Kyiv.

The Ukrainian authorities in recent
months have begun to restore the balance to where Russian moves have brought their
country, even though Moscow continues to act and some continue to believe that
Ukraine is the problem, something that even the most cursory examination of the
situation will demonstrate is not the case.